Message Notes and Group Study Guide
Date: February 10-11, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Kurt Bjorklund
Series: Return to Me
Message: #1 - Lesson of the Broken Cisterns
Scripture
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. 12 Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. 13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. —Jeremiah 2:11-13 (NIV)
Notes
Four Solutions
- Try to not be
- Try to make better
- Try to expect
- Change my
“I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.” —Jeremiah 3:7 (NIV)
“Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “’Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will not be angry forever.’” —Jeremiah 3:12 (NIV)
“Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’” —Jeremiah 2:25 (NIV)
“Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute.” —Jeremiah 2:20 (NIV)
“Compulsive is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated, or despised. Whether I am a pianist, a businessman, or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world… The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failing and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same – more work, more money, more friends.” - Henri Nouwen
“Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria.” —Jeremiah 2:36 (NIV)
“Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subjects that excite us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us. - C.S. Lewis
“I hope everyone gets rich and famous and does everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it’s not the answer.” - Jim Carey
“Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who want to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - C.S. Lewis
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” —Matthew 6:23 (NIV)
Study Guide
Step One: Icebreaker (Optional)
Are you a soap and water or hand sanitizer kind of person?
Step Two: Open
Ask someone in your group to pray to open your time together. Ask another person to read Jeremiah 2.
Step Three: Discuss
- What stood out to you the most in this weekend’s teaching? What was challenging, encouraging, or confusing to you?
- What can you imagine newlywed love looking and feeling like? How might that compare with someone first meeting and falling in love with Jesus? If you’ve had that experience, share what that was like and how it may be different now.
- What is God’s problem with His people according to Jeremiah’s prophesy in verses 5, 7, and 8? What are the two specific sins that God highlights against them in verse 13?
- Find all the references to water in this passage (verses 13, 18, 22) and discuss other scriptures that you know talk about the living water that God offers to His people.
- In Jeremiah 2:22, God reminds His people that the stain from their guilt of sin cannot be washed away with soap and disinfectant. Why is this important and what is the solution to the sin problem?
- After considering what Christ has done for your sin problem, what is your response to this message from Jeremiah 2?
Step Four: Close in Prayer
End with reading Psalm 1 medidatively and prayerfully.